Delving into the environmental aspect of a Sardinian white wine: From partial to total life cycle assessment

Abstract

The aim of this study was to deepen the assessment of the environmental impacts of a white wine produced in Sardinia (FU 750 ml), performing an attributional LCA. The system boundaries were extended, from 'cradle to gate' (partial LCA) of a previous study, to 'cradle to grave' (total LCA), in order to identify the environmental impacts occurring along the wine life cycle stages (vine planting, grape production, wine production, bottling and packaging, distribution, final disposal of the glass bottle). Some assumptions were made in order to quantify the environmental impact of the transportation phase, regarding the few data which were available. Inventory data were mainly collected through direct communication with the Company involved in the study. Results showed that the environmental performance of wine was mostly determined by the glass bottle production (for all impact categories except ozone layer depletion). The second contributor was the agricultural phase, which included two sub-phases: vine planting and grape production. Results showed that the vine planting sub-phase was not negligible given its contribution to the agricultural phase, mainly due to diesel fuel consumption. Transportation impact was found to be relevant for long distance distribution (USA); the impact categories more affected by transport were acidification, eutrophication, photochemical oxidation and global warming potential. Suggested opportunities to reduce the overall environmental impact were the introduction of a lighter glass bottle or the substitution of the glass bottle with a polylaminate container.

Assessment of Environmental and Economic Impacts of Vine-Growing Combining Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Costing and Multicriterial Analysis

“…The most common Functional Unit (FU) applied in LCA studies on wine growing is the mass unit as the bottle, the volume of wine or the mass of grapes [31,38,39]. Only few studies used a cultivated area unit to compare different farming strategies [35,40].…”

“…This choice allowed conducting the analysis in terms of product; furthermore, in advances of this work, it will allow to use results as partial LCA [38] of wine production. Instead, in similar studies 1.1 kg of grapevines was used as FU [37], because this mass is closer to the quantity needed for one bottle of 750 mL; however, it must consider that this alternative can make more difficult the scaling operations when the final product is packaged in containers different from 750 mL bottles.…”

Life Cycle Assessment Application to the Wine Sector: A Critical Review

“…Furthermore, other studies suggest that the substitution of glass bottles with other alternatives of wine packaging, such as the aseptic carton, could significantly improve the environmental performances of wine bottles [12,25,33].…”

“…This aspect can affect the environmental results of the viticulture because vine planting is not a negligible sub-phase due to diesel fuel consumption [15,25].…”

TEA (Techno-economic analysis) and LCA (Life cycle assessment) of small, medium, and large scale winemaking processes

“…There are a lot of applications of LCA in winemaking process and winery operation. Fusi et al (2014) conducted a 'cradle to grave' LCA (total LCA) to identify and assess the environmental burdens along the white wine life cycle stage, including grape planting, wine production, wine bottling, packaging, distribution and disposal of wine bottle. In their research, the glass bottle production was considered the most determinative to the environmental performance of production of a bottle of white wine.…”